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PROLOGUE © Raúl Diez Canseco Terry First edition: January 2020 © of this edition San Ignacio de Loyola University Fondo Editorial Calle Toulon 330, La Molina he end of the first decade of the new twenty-first Phone number: (+51) 3171000, anex 3705 century shakes the world with accelerated and complex changes, in which the trade war between Director: José Valdizán Ayala T Editor: Rafael Felices Taboada world powers pales in comparison to the first glimpses of Design and layout: Sergio Pastor Segura the technological war by the end of 2019: a war of drones, an asymmetrical one, in which the powers of the world are Coordinator: María Olivera Cano realigned. A war that no one wants and that everyone fears. English translation: Daniela Jarufe Latin America, without much participation on the world Hecho el Depósito Legal en la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú stage of this war, is going through its own skirmishes of Nº 2020-01640 low or medium intensity. Shaken by social phenomena, the region turns on a warning light with outraged, connected The photographs were downloaded from https://unsplash.com/. and violent citizens in countries such as Chile, Ecuador, PRINTING Bolivia, and Colombia, our neighbors. Publicaciones USIL Av. Paul Poblet Lind s/n, Sub Lote B, Parcela 1, Fundo Carolina, The gap between economic growth for some, on one hand, Pachacámac. and economic and social inequality and inequity for others, on the other hand, was the element that triggered the social February 2020 conflicts. As observed by Tocqueville, the peoples rise up 500 copies of this book were printed. in rebellion because of those who demand more than they were given, and less due to a feeling of extreme injustice. The total or partial reproduction of this book by any means is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the Fondo Editorial. Until not too long ago, Latin America was the region bet on looking at things from a different perspective. We where the middle class, which is a product of more can find a silver lining in every crisis. This is what happened than 30 years of tax adjustment programs and financial when we were affected by the El Niño phenomenon in ’97 discipline, had grown the most. Every one welcomed this – ’98. Uncontrollable downpours caused rivers to overflow new middle class that widened the service industry and and wiped out farmlands. However, they created huge the commerce, but that lived and still lives off credit, that lakes where there were fish that people could consume, has to use transport services with a modern infrastructure and as these new lakes dried, the humid soil allowed them but with a pre-modern service, that have a precarious job to sow new crops. Nothing lasts forever. and bills to pay at the end of the month that threaten their economic and emotional tranquility. This book is, in that sense, an optimistic outlook on the complicated world we have to live in. A time period that Soon, these new middle classes got tired of living on the anthropologists are starting to call Anthropocene, an edge and went out on the streets to shout their discontent age in which the Earth and its life conditions change in different tones. Not all can be explained through an due to the actions (and lack thereof) of mankind: global economic point of view. In countries such as Venezuela and warming, environmental imbalance, the deglaciation Bolivia, it was politics that failed. Warlord-like presidents of our mountains, the scarcity of water, the precarious forced their hold on power by any means they could. One biodiversity, the disappearance of many species. At of them still remains in his bubble of illusion. the same time, there have never been larger advances in science and technology: in robotics and artificial We grew, we voted, but not all of us in the same proportion. intelligence, in biotechnology and human genome. In this scenario, one of change, bad blood and modernity, of both technologic and social connectivity, both private This is the new world of the new generations of Peruvians. companies and governments, particularly in our region, We must give them a better place than the one in which are obliged to be efficient and effective. The inefficiency of we have had to live. That must be our main responsibility, the public sector creates an economic backwardness and both in our private life and in the life we, circumstantially, social dissatisfaction. These two elements, when together, lead in the public sector. cause discouragement, discontent and, in extreme cases, distrust. This is the worst that could happen to us both as For the past 30 years, poverty has decreased in our a region and as a country. country. We need to continue to do this; if we don’t, we will be putting the new generations at risk, generations In the long run, the phenomena of discontent and distrust that year after year see their desire to insert themselves in affect the democratic system. This is why I permanently the labor market frustrated. Three hundred thousand new young people join the ranks of the economically active sector. Managing this new scientific knowledge will allow, population every year. How are we going to absorb them? at the same time, the development of research centers and new market niches that will not only aim for the internal The first task of the pilot who governs the ship we call market, but also for every region in the world. Peru must, therefore, abandon the autopilot and actually make the decisions that the emergency situation During my travels around Peru, I have seen the direct effects demands. Peru’s economic growth must be seen through a caused by the El Niño phenomenon and the impossibility multidimensional approach, with indicators that are aligned of our authorities – local, regional and national – to face to social and institutional goals, which improvement is vital them. We talk a lot about reconstruction, and we offer for maintaining a healthy, sustainable country growth. This alternatives to mitigate the devastating effects El Niño on is what happens if we establish clear goals for the health, the infrastructure, on the agriculture, but we do not talk education and infrastructure areas. about making decisions that will decrease its negative effects in the future. We have many opportunities to continue growing. Mining contributes to national development. Agriculture, The weather phenomenon – the rivers swelling, the in its agro-export version, has become a job generating downpours, the floods – are a cyclic, recurrent reality. We opportunity. Both sectors are not irreconcilable. Our agro- know that, in some years, we will have these weather biodiversity makes us a world pantry and laboratory, with anomalies again, and that they will become more and more one of the most valuable natural and cultural patrimonies. frequent. What we need, then, is to have a climate change Cultural and ethnic diversity gives us valuable ancient authority; a high-ranking official with power who does not knowledge about the appropriate uses and properties of only work on reconstructing, but also on preventing. the genetic resources and species of both flora and fauna. We are a very diverse country; one of the 12 countries in This very rich ecosystem, genetic and biological patrimony the world with 70% of the planet’s biodiversity. We can opens a window of opportunities for new economic fields, produce virtually anything during the whole year, while, in such as eco-innovation, bio-commerce eco-tourism, cuisine other places, due to climate related reasons, they cannot. and the powerful cultural and entertainment industry. These climate characteristics put us in an advantageous situation compared to Europe, North America, China, In order to highlight all that economic potential, we need Russia and other regions of the world. several things: from the restructuration of our educational model, developing a critical and productive thinking in our Our Amazon rainforest is a living laboratory in which we children, to the purposeful investment in research and can install research and development facilities, placing development policies, from both the public and the private ourselves at the forefront of biotechnology and genetic engineering. We can transform the natural resources and were not activated that easily, and that can also make the give them an added value; create and chain specialized creation of productive knowledge easier. and highly productive clusters through production and development centers and technological institutes in Peruvian education in the year 2050 must allow as many different regions of the country. Peruvians as possible to generate productive, complex and sophisticated knowledge so they can create a better The tool that will best allow us to walk through the quality of life for themselves and for our country. This is path of success, of growth with innovation, is education. what I call entrepreneurial education. Humanity has achieved things that, not too long ago, seemed unthinkable. Little by little, science fiction is According to UN data, half of the world population is becoming just science. Our lives have become easier and under 30 years old, and 26% is under 15 years old. This more prosperous thanks to a large amount of small feats of generation was born after 1986 in a new world: the world crucial importance. During the last two centuries, there has of Facebook, of cellphones and of the internet. For these been an expansion of “productive knowledge”, meaning boys and girls, the access to education may signify a the knowledge that is used to make the products that bridge to the future, but not having such access may also we use. However, this expansion was not an individual become a great obstacle.

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